Pre-Packing Plather

Here are just a few of the supplies I'm bringing for my upcoming workshop EXPLORING NOT SO PLAIN WEAVE at Jockey Hollow Weavers in New Jersey. This will be a "round robin" style workshop if you know what that is. There will be 13 students, 13 looms, and 13 different plain weave variations. Each student gets to weave a sample on each of the looms and ends up with a sample notebook. Tons of fun for the students. Tons of work for the teacher.


The white skeins are bamboo from Habu. The bag of little balls is a lb of assorted un-knitted cashmere. The tubes are Bambu 7 from Cotton Clouds.

I leave first thing tomorrow morning.

I still don't have a lap top computer, so I won't be blogging until I return.

Another Mother and a Bunch of Babies

Lunatic Fringe Yarns

proudly presents…

The Tubular Spectrum

12 Color Kit

$45

Designed especially for Bonnie Tarses’ horoscope workshop!

The kit contains 1 ½ ounces (400 yards) of each of these colors;

5 Purple

5 Red Purple

5 Red

10 Red

5 Yellow Red

10 Yellow Red

5 Yellow

5 Yellow Green

10 Green

10 Blue Green

10 Blue

10 Purple Blue

All of these brilliantly dyed mercerized 100% cotton yarns are from the Tubular Spectrum, our signature cotton yarn collection.

We also have weft yarns available in 20/2 mercerized cotton .

Black: 1# cones (8400 yards) for $24 and ½# cones (4200 yards) for $13.

Check our website for more information about these and other great yarns.

www.Lunaticfringeyarns.com

And speaking of Lavender Sachets--- I have sewn them all and am now in process of turning them


Trimming and turning has to be the very best step in a very long process. As I turn each one, I get to see them for the very first time as a single entity. (no 2 are alike, I love that!) You remember they are all from the same warp.

A BUNCH OF BABIES (grin)

I leave Friday and will be gone until the 14th. I will save the stuffing and hand stitching for my return. After all, that will give me a whole week before the Guild Sale.

Mothers of Invention

Meanwhile back in St. Louis I show students how I warp from back to front. One of my goals for this year is to get some YouTube footage of me winding a warp and dressing the loom from back to front. I may have to move that to my goal for 2010, but it is coming. Let me mention Peggy Osterkamp. Years ago she gave me a copy of her first book. Since then she has written much more. I thought her information was excellent and always meant to tell her so. Peggy you are a MOI


For those who arrive at the workshop without their loom warped and ready to go, there is always an inventive soul ready to jump in.


Again let me say hoe thrilled I was to see a Rigid Heddle loom show up at the workshop. This student decided to weave her horoscope in 3 panels. She actually got 2 panels woven during the workshop. By the evening of the lecture, she had all 3 woven and pinned together. Pretty cool!


Here I am at the lecture---Exploring Not So Plain Weave. I like to wear this huipil showing what to do with little scraps of leftover handwovens. I don't have a picture of the back, but it has different scraps. When I am teaching a 2-day workshop, I just turn it around for a new top.

St. Louis Recap

I finally understand what people mean when they say they are too busy to weave. I expect to find spider webs on my looms.

But the upside is the wonderful experience I had in St. Louis! What a great group! Of course I have this all backwards. I taught a 2 day workshop first, and then I gave a couple of lectures. Here is the guild from the Exploring Not So Plain Weave program waving to you. I had a lovely chat with Connie (lower left). She told me she had taken a class from Mary Meigs Atwater!


Oops, I just deleted a really important picture. I'll just have to do a another post tomorrow. Pretend you are seeing weavers weaving their horoscopes.

In addition to weaving, I presented several intriguing color exercises. The one below is about building your own palette and the subjective nature of color. (no mistakes, no wrong answers)


And Marti even finished her weaving. There is always one. And she hadn't woven in years.


Here we are at the end of the second day. Everyone agreed it was a life-changing experience. Surely you will soon see finished weavings in Inspired By Bonnie.


Jockey Hollow here I come.

It's the Journey Not the Destination

Somewhere in the middle of sewing labels onto silk squares, drudge transforms into art and I discover the joy in doing the best I can---not thinking about "this is going to take me forever!"

By the way, the black "thing" in the picture below is the black sewing thread I trimmed off from sewing in the labels.


I want to say a word about my labels. They are custom woven labels. I decided many years ago that I should have custom woven labels. I researched to find a company that would weave up a small run (not many would). So back in the 80's, I got 1000 labels. They lasted me 10 years. I ordered another 1000 labels, and they lasted me another 10 years. When I went to order a third round, I discovered the company was no longer in business. But I found a company on line, so now I am weaving through my third thousand. My weaving output is much less now than it used to be, so I expect it will take me longer to use these.

I will be selling the sachets for $24 each. I want to know in my heart that I have put as much time, artistry, effort and love into each piece and hopefully a customer will recognize that.

So I spent 2 hours cutting the cloth into strips. (not an emotionally easy task) Each strip will make 4 sachets. No two will be alike.



But now it's time to do laundry and pack (grin)

Maybe Life is One Long Series of Digressions

So I just spent the past 6 hours sewing 108 labels onto 108 silk 5" squares that will become the backs for 108 lavender sachets I am making for the Seattle Weavers Guild Sale. (See link to the right).


Keep in mind that I leave to teach a workshop in St Louis on Friday. Why am I doing this, you might ask? And why am I doing this now?

1. Since the lavender sachets are featured on the guild postcard, it would behoove me to have some to sell at our guild's wonderful sale (and it is totally wonderful).
2. Once I get back from St. Louis, I leave again in a week for the East Coast and another teaching gig in New Jersey.
3. I return from the East Coast on October 13th, and the guild sale is October 22nd.

Stay tuned...

But I Digress...

As my "to do" grows by leaps and bounds, what's a body to do? Learn something new! When the opportunity to have Syne Mitchell teach me the "ins and outs" of a rigid heddle loom (coupled with Indian food), who could resist. Workshop and lecture planning, proposal writing, and 104 lavender sachets----well, there is ALWAYS enough time.

I was going to call this post: CREATIVE PROCRASTINATION RIDES AGAIN or YOU CAN TEACH AN OLD DOG....


This wonderful picture of Syne and I was taken by Syne's delightful son, Kai! I do have to admit that I actually made a threading error (perhaps exactly at this moment). It made me laugh when I sat down to weave later that day.


Syne let me use some of her own dyed warp. I decided to put my lavender stems to good use. I am about to create 108 lavender sachets for the upcoming guild sale, so I have been collecting lavender from friends. Some friends give me lavender all ready to use and others have given me great bundles. At various points in the de-stemming process, my apartment has the aroma of a field of lavender. Oh well, I had to stick in that random stalk of yarrow.


It's funny, when I first started weaving back in the very early 60's, weed weaving was all the rage. So literally I am going back to my roots.


I just tacked it up on the wall without finishing off any of the ends. All in all, a totally satisfying event. I can't wait to see if I can manage to weave a Color Horoscope Weaving on a rigid heddle.

BUT I DO DIGRESS....

Oh, by the way check out my other blog